House to transmit 2021 budget bill to Senate on Tuesday

The House of Representatives will transmit its approved version of the 2021 General Appropriations Bill to the Senate on Tuesday, one day ahead of their original schedule of submission, Speaker Lord Allan Velasco said.

House Bill 7727, or the 2021 GAB, proposes a P4.506-trillion budget for next year, and was approved on third and final reading before Congress went on a month-long break on October 16.

"This record-high budget was designed to further strengthen government response and stimulate economic recovery in the wake of the coronavirus pandemic," Velasco said in a statement.

"Not only did we pass the proposed 2021 national budget in a timely, constitutional and legal manner, we also made sure next year’s spending plan will be more reflective and responsive to the needs of the people amid the worst public health crisis in a generation," he added.

According to Velasco, the House increased the allocation for the purchase of COVID-19 vaccines "by more than three-fold" in order to cover more Filipinos.

At the same time, they also provided more funding for the facilities enhancement program of the Department of Health to further improve the country's healthcare system.

Aside from these, Velasco said the chamber's version of the 2021 budget bill also gave additional funding for the Department of Labor and Employment to assist workers affected by the COVID-19 pandemic, as well as for the Department of Social Welfare and Development to allow for another round of financial assistance to pandemic-hit families.

"The House could not have done it without its hardworking and dedicated members, including the Secretariat, who worked till the wee hours of the morning on a number of occasions to ensure that we pass a budget that is fair, equitable, timely, and responsive to the needs of the country as we fight this very serious public health and economic crisis," he said.

"I am grateful to them for making this chamber truly the House representing the people," he added.

A special four-day session of the House was held in order to reopen the plenary deliberations on the budget bill and approve it on third and final reading.

This was after the House, during the term of then-Speaker Alan Peter Cayetano, abruptly terminated the plenary deliberations and quickly approved the measure on second reading on October 6. The House sessions were then suspended until November 16.

However, some lawmakers believed this was a move to prevent the impending transfer of speakership from Cayetano to Velasco, which was supposed to happen on October 14.

Velasco was eventually elected as Speaker on October 12, and Cayetano resigned from his post afterwards.—AOL, GMA News